A Snowmachining Adventure (of the Mild Sort)

I have always disliked snowmobiles, but also been curious about it as a sport since people who like snowmobiling tend to be fanatics who go to great lengths and expense to practice this hobby. My aunt and uncle probably fall into this category. They snowmachined (the Alaska term for it) the entire 1000+ mile Iditarod sled dog race trail not once, but twice a few years back! They plan snowmachining trips, invite friends to their cabin to go snowmachining, and have way more machines than people in their family.

We ended up being some of the people they invited to go snowmachining with them. It was quite the process. The snowmachines were already loaded up on trailers, so it was a matter of packing food and clothing for overnight, driving 20 miles of icy roads (it was really a road of ice, not with 'some' ice on it!) to the trailhead, unloading 5 snowmachines, loading them up with supplies and heading down the trail. All of this took at least 2 hours, and it seemed like an eternity. The sun was lighting up the Alaska Range as it rose about 10:45, and Mt. Illiamna rose in stately wonder above the rest of the range so at least we had some scenery to enjoy.

Finally we were all set....and pretty cold too after standing around outside for an hour or so during the unloading process. We headed down the trail, stopping every so often to make sure we were all doing okay since we had 3 first-timers out there: Douglas, Aurora and myself had never really snowmachined before.

Everything was going along swimmingly until we stopped at Grandpa's Watering Hole. I walked back to Aurora to see how she was doing, and she was nearly in tears. Apparently her hands hurt horribly from the cold. I rounded up a pair of wool gloves and mittens and Hotties hand warmers, but Aurora was fading out on me. She laid down on the snowmachine, then fell to the ground. Her eyes opened and closed, but she wasn't responsive even when I yelled at her. Finally she came to enough and I got her to eat a little food and drink some hot cocoa. After 15 minutes or so she was quiet but alert, sitting up on her own and watching the other snowmachiners go by. Whew! That was a little scary! We couldn't put her back on the machine driving so Denver got to have a go at it, driving her machine the rest of the way to the cabin. He went pretty slowly, but did what he needed to do and got there safely.

We got out to the cabin we were staying at, got the fire going and got warmed up a bit. Then my uncle, Douglas and I headed out for a powder run: cross-country snowmachining. This was the highlight of my weekend. Sometimes we were heading up ravines with steep sides rising above us on 3 sides and we would head up and pop over the edge, treated to the vista of either the Alaska Range and Cook Inlet or the Kenai Mountain Range or sometimes both if we were high enough up. Down, up, around, down and back up. For 2 hours we hit powder, following no trail and enjoying the machines' power. We could not have enjoyed this treat if my uncle were not so familiar with the area and confident about his directions. This could easily turn into a disaster with inexperienced sledders as there were hidden streams and holes to fall into, stumps or rocks to run into, and the weak light of mid-afternoon hid the contours of the snow making visibility poor. I could feel the wind buffeting my helmet, but besides my right hand (no heated grip on that side!) I was plenty warm with my 4 layers: long underwear, tights, goretex pants and snow pants on the bottom; long underwear, warmup ski jacket, heavy sweatshirt and winter jacket on the top. A bakalava, neckwarmer and the helmet kept my head and neck toasty.

The evening brought another concern: Denver fell asleep. Denver only sleeps if he is sick, but he hadn't appeared sick. A couple hours later we woke him up, and after a groggy dinner he finally joined us in our game-playing. Apparently the excitement and cold had worn him out and he just needed a little "freshening up." Us adults need it more often, but I was a bit concerned there since Denver never does. Three hours of cold outdoor air did it though!

Sunday morning dawned gray, but it had warmed up overnight to about 20 degrees and the wind had died down so it was a pleasant day to be out snowmachining. We hit some powder at the start of the day to Aurora's delight, as she was ready to prove herself fit for the ride. Then we settled in for the hard, bumpy ride home on the packed trail. Denver got a turn driving in there, though neither of them got their fill. They are hooked on the speed and power of the snowmachines and would love it if we indulged in this sport ourselves.

For myself, I enjoyed it too, especially the guided off-trail tour by my uncle. I could do this more often, but I have my reservations: there was a lot of trash along the trail, we arrived home stinking of fuel, the trail were busy, and I have no doubt there were plenty of intoxicated drivers out there. It doesn't seem like the wisest thing in the world to put an inexperienced kid on a machine like that. However, I can totally see how, especially in Alaska, people love the winter because snowmachines allow easy access to areas that are completely or nearly inaccessible in the summertime. Swamps and rivers, bogs and bugs, are the nemesis of Alaskans. And yet at heart I am a silent sports enthusiast: I love the clean quiet of snowshoing and sking. Yes, I will snowmachine whenever I get the chance because it will allow me to explore Alaska, but will I become a fanatic: no. In these times of conserving resources and preserving our world, it seems like it uses more resources than recreation should, and I found myself cringing as we ran over trees and shrubs, damaging them. Perhaps I am a patsy that way. I wish sometimes I could steamroller over the world I live in without a care, but my consciousness of this earth doesn't let me. So I feel a bit guilty, but enjoy myself too.

New Year's Eve in Homer

We've never been in Homer on New Year's Eve before so didn't realize what an event it was.  We got multiple invites to events, and ended up going to Bishop's Beach for a bonfire.

We don't go to Bishop's Beach at night ever, so I'm not sure if it is always as busy as it was last night, but I doubt it.  There were at least 4 bonfires going along the beach, some quite large!  A constant stream of cars drove through the parking lot or along the beach.  Groups of people would disembark their cars, go for walks and load up again.  Dogs wandered freely, and it wasn't always clear whose dog was whose.  Fireworks would go off, first on one end of the beach, then the other, then over on the spit, then down on the sand where the kids were playing.

Speaking of fireworks, that is what struck us the most about New Year's Eve in Homer.  There were fireworks going off all the time somewhere.  You could see them or hear them, not only on the beach, but in town as well.  It took us awhile to figure it out, but then we realized that it is light out 24 hours a day in Alaska in the summer so fireworks aren't shot off at the 4th of July.  New Year's Eve becomes the perfect time to shoot them off, and people do so in large numbers.  Doug got this picture of a firework shot off right over our heads with his iphone camera--no high quality, but I'm impressed it even turned out this good!

The weather was perfect:  nearly calm, a crystal clear sky with a full moon and cold enough that we appreciated the fire and hot drinks!   The tide was a -4 so there was an expanse of wet sand for the kids to play on.  From our vantage point they looked like shadows flitting about.  We kept track of the number of shadows, and at one point there were 6 shadows instead of 5.  We yelled, "Who is the extra kid?"  The kids didn't seem to know what we were talking about; they milled around, trying to figure out who the "extra" kid was.  When finally they found him we discovered he was from the party the next bonfire down.  Pretty soon the kid's mom wandered down, infant in arms.  She recognized me from a Christian homeschooling mom's group, so soon we had a great conversation going.  It struck me what a small town this is that you can meet and recognize people you know at night on the beach.  The kids were perfectly comfortable with their wild running-around fun, and were out there for a couple hours before they petered out and collapsed by the fire, grabbing drinks and snacks.

The "boat barn" party was one that we missed--square and contra dancing with a live band and food.  Guess that one is a huge annual tradition in Homer; not publicized formally but apparently open to all.  We also got an invite to a sledding party/bonfire as well.  We didn't feel like being nomads, and the kids were having so much fun we didn't want to break it up so we ended up being on the beach for hours.  This was all after we'd invited some people over for dinner at our place....but we'd invited too late and everyone had their party schedule in place for the night.

The other thing that really struck me was how many people mentioned that they avoid being on the roads after 11:00 on New Year's Eve because of the crazy drivers.  One person described things as "wild".  It made me a little nervous driving home, but curious as well:  are there that many drunk/high drivers on the road and is it really that dangerous??  I don't know, but when I check the news report I'll find out just how bad it was.

It was interesting being in Homer for a New Year's Eve. It wasn't so incredible that I would feel terrible if I missed it, but I can rest assured that there will be plenty to do if we want it!

Alyeska Revisted

Last year we went to Alyeska for a 4 day ski vacation.  This year when we started talking about Christmas break plans all the kids wanted to do was go back to Alyeska.  We looked into plenty of housing options, tried to get some other families to go with us and split a house or condo rental, and finally ended up staying at Alyeska Resort again.  Two free lift tickets per day for three days, plus free breakfasts four mornings tipped the balance and made it worth it to stay there rather than drive back and forth to a hotel in Anchorage.

Doug’s experience learning to snowboard last year was less than stellar so he decided to learn to downhill ski.  He took lessons two days and felt ready to hit the slopes, despite never having been on downhill skis before.  Denver took lessons a couple of days also, and advanced to the intermediate level for skiers.  Aurora improved the most and her confidence level on her snowboard got a huge boost.  Her instructor laughingly said, “I tried to make her fall but couldn’t!” taking her down some jumps.  Aurora was thrilled to actually “get air” for the first time.  Though I’d skied before I didn’t have a lot of confidence so I took lessons the first day and it helped give me some focus on what I need to do to improve my technique, as well as tips on how to conserve my energy so I don’t get tired so quickly.  All of our lessons were worth the cost, though some of them would have been better had everyone in the group been at the same level.

The weather the day before we left was bitterly cold:  single digits with a wind.  By time we got to Alyeska it had warmed up to the 30’s and it was alternating snow, slush and rain.  The first day was good snow; the second day was better since it cooled down enough for fresh snow overnight.  Day 3 it was pouring rain.  The kids had planned on lessons that day, and things proceed as planned despite pouring rain.  Many parents opted out of skiing, but sent their little ones out for lessons.  At 12:30 when lessons were over it was pouring rain and blowing so we opted for a run into Anchorage to do our shopping (Costco!).  Finally, on the last day (we still had lift tickets left over since we hadn’t used them the day before) the kids and I skied.  It was icy (the lift operators couched it nicely:  fast!) and even the grooming hadn’t made it very nice so skiing wasn’t ideal, but we were still out there so the kids were happy.  The cannons constantly booming and the rush of avalanches when they hit their mark was a little disconcerting (even hearing impaired me could hear them!), but everyone went about their business as usual so I figured we must be out of range.

There were a few sweet parts to our vacation.  The second day we were there our breakfast vouchers were stolen out of our room.  Security investigated, and the hotel willingly replaced them despite the statement in boldface on the front:  Vouchers will not be replaced if lost or stolen.  They were worth $80 so we appreciated their replacement.  The day it was pouring rain Doug returned his ski rentals at noon.  Normally they have to be returned within 24 hours of rental time in order not to be charged for the next day.  When he requested a refund for that day they gave it to him without questions.  That really earned our loyalty.  They were little things that the resort could have been hard-nosed about, but they chose to consider our perspective.  In doing so, we will consider returning and would recommend them to others.

Each day we ran into people we knew from around the state, so it was fun to feel part of the cozy Alaska community, which isn’t as cozy as it used to be, but still retains some of its small-town feel.  Overall, it was a vacation to feel good about.  We were talking about going to Hawaii for Christmas next year, but our kids are totally against it:  “We want to go to Alyeska!”  Such choices!

The Foreigness of Life in Alaska--NOT!

It has taken over two years to get to the point where I have to shake my head and remind myself that I am in Alaska. It no longer seems like the exotic, wild place it was when we first moved here.  Just like anywhere else, budgets are tight, life is busy, cars and appliances break down, it snows, it rains, it ices, there are good times with friends, and on and on.

I no longer think about bears and moose quite as much (though of course it is prudent to look for the mama moose and her 2 babies that hang in our yard when we walk at night).
Subarus are standard fare, particularly old Subarus that have survived since they don't salt the roads up here.
 Beards are such a common sight, even those large flowing beards on young men, that I don't notice them much anymore.
Bald eagles are still special, but not so unusual as to ooooooh over since I will see at least one most days it seems.
Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular here, though I wonder if I just never noticed them in the midwest?
The short days I do still notice (we're nearing the shortest daylight hours of the year!), though I noticed short days in the midwest too.  Here they are just shorter--somewhere around 6 hours of sunlight on the shortest day, though daylight hours are longer with dawn and dusk extending for well over and hour before and after the sunrise and sunset.
I take it for granted that if I want cheaper food I have to drive 1 1/2 hours to Kenai or Soldotna, and even cheaper food (read:  normal price for Lower 48) requires a 4-5 hour drive to Anchorage.  That's less work than those who live in the bush, or Valdez, or Tok or many other outlying towns.
Mail order is becoming standard fare for us and the latest discovery is zappos.com:  free shipping on both orders and returns with shoes being the main item we have difficulty finding up here.  We swap companies that have good shipping policies to Alaska, and shun whenever possible those who charge exoribent rates.  Gift cards do the job for holidays much of the time.
Service seems to be uniformly poor, but there are occasional pockets of good service that earn our loyalty.  The typical attitude seems to be, "You should be happy we're here at all!"  And to a degree, they're right.  We should be happy we have enterprenuers who are willing to run businesses at all.
Small, private businesses rather than chains are the standard fare in Homer, and the longer I am here the more it seems that Homer is a metropolitan area.  In fact, it is not considered rural by Alaskan standards.
I continue to be impressed with the talent and offerings in this little burg.  The Nutcracker is a stellar performance by local kids each year, Community Schools offers oodles of activities, there are dance classes, voice lessons, theatre, and more than anyone could possibly do.  That's not counting the "free stuff":  parks, hikes, skiing, beachwalks, etc.
Is it me, or are there more people with passion about issues who are willing to take a stand?  There are more radicals here, or else I just never saw them in the midwest.

Ultimately I have learned that this is just another place to live (albeit, a place I really like living!), and wherever you go you are still the same person and will have many of the same challenges.  Life is about survival, and also about self actualization--seeking that sense of meaning and purpose.  This just happens to be where we've planted ourselves for the moment as we live our lives.

The Homer Invitational: First High School Race of the Year

Part of the advantage of being on the Kachemak Women's Nordic Ski Team is that I get email notices about all the local ski events, including a call for volunteers. When one of the volunteers got called to work on the Slope at the last minute, I felt bad for the volunteer coordinator and offered to be a timer at the Homer Invitational High School ski race at Lookout Mountain last Friday. My relatives were coming from Kenai to race, so I figured I could spectator and help out at the same time.

Despite having raced all through high school, this ski race did not even begin to stir any memories for me of my high school skiing days. It is a totally different ballpark. When I was in high school it was a ski club, there were maybe 10 of us on the team (2 girls), it was skating only (the years right after Bill Koch's gold medal win at the '84 Olympics using the revolutionary ski skating technique), we went to community races where the very young to the very old all raced together, and it was always a mass start. I raced against other high schoolers in a high-school only venue just once a year:  at the high school cross-country ski championships near the end of the season.

Contrast that with this race setup:
There were about 130 racers, JV and varsity, boys and girls.
Friday afternoon was a 3km classical race; Saturday was the 5km skating race. Thus, the kids got a whole day off school to go to this race, and then they all camped overnight at Homer High School.
The starts were timed, about 10-15 seconds apart, so there was no "pack", and you really didn't know how you were doing relative to everyone else until the results came in long after the race was over.  To top it off, the coaches waxed the kids' skis and there were volunteers who wrapped blankets around the skiers as they stood in line waiting to start.  Admittedly, the pressure on these young athletes is probably much greater than it was on me since so much time and money is invested in their success.

My job as a timer was to click a button each time a skier's foot crossed the finish line.  Three other people were doing the same thing, and there were 4 people punching bib numbers into their handheld computers while 2 people had a paper backups, writing down every bib number as it crossed the finish line.  All of the information from the computers was being fed into the laptop in the warming hut as we did it.  If it seems like overkill, some of the handheld computers weren't working, so it was important that at least one be working at all times.  My neice ended up losing to the next closest skier in the classical race by one-tenth of a second, which could be someone's reaction time in clicking their button.

All in all, it was fun to be part of this event and see how a ski race is run.  The grooming, plowing, signage, timers, yadda yadda, all added up to a huge number of hours to pull this off.  A really nice touch was the huge bonfire with hot drinks, soup and a place to sit for anyone who cared to stop and enjoy.  Unfortunately, I was too busy timing to get over there, but it sure looked inviting!

A New Era of Skiing for Me? Kachemak Women's Nordic Ski Team

As I've skiied the trails around Homer the past couple years I've passed a group of women skiing up and down hills and doing drills. I figured it was ski lessons, but last week when we went to the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club's annual meeting I discovered more about the group.

First of all, the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club's (KNSC) annual meeting was a rowdy affair. Packed into a bar (Only packed because there were so many people. I would say over a 100-ish throughout the evening), there was a full lineup of delicious food, a silent auction, door prizes, kids games and, later on, a live band. Since it wasn't packed when we first got there, the woman in charge of the Women's Nordic Ski Team, Megan Corazza, nabbed me and tried to recruit me. I was intrigued. I've been looking for ways to meet more people, and I enjoy a good workout. When Megan started talking about a 3 hour OD (over distance) run the next day, though, I thought, "No way! This is way out of my league!" On top of that, they practice 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. Geez. Who has that kind of time?? I threw the form on my "black hole" pile of papers in my office when I got home and figured that was that.

A few days later I was walking my daughter into the high school for her rock climbing session when I ran into Megan again (it looks like she and her husband coach the high school team). We got to chatting and I mentioned that with home schooling I would need to bring my kids to practice. Megan said, "No problem." What if I can't make it every day? "No problem." Is it ok if I don't compete? "No problem." In fact, apparently the women on the team who skied competitively in college are the ones who want nothing to do with competition now. They just ski for fun, exercise and camaraderie. Sounds like me to a T. I said, "Get me on the email list."

The next day I got the email list of the workouts for the week that week: this will be a double pole and specific strength workout; run/walk and leg swings; try to swim for a full hour; no particular plan, just crappy skis and see what kind of inventive technique we can use to get around the trail. I wasn't sure just how good of shape I wanted to get into, but hey, it sounds pretty flexible. I'm not into running, though, and I'm a bit touchy about super-focused workouts, even after nearly 20 years away from competition. Obsession about sports turns me off faster than an ice cube down my back.

When a little bit of snow fell and the temperatures fell with it, lake skiing looked like the best skiing possibility. I had no prior commitments today during practice time (11-1), so I loaded up the car with my skis, the kids' skis, the kids' ice skates (just in case), extra gloves, neckwarmers, hats, jackets, snacks, and water (did I miss anything??? Oh, I looked at my camera and opted against it. Sorry--no pictures.) and away we went. A 15 minute drive up to the reservoir above Homer (off West Skyline Drive) got us to a lake covered with, say, maybe 2 inches of snow in the deepest spots.

We skied a warm up loop around the lake, and then Megan introduced the kids and I to the group of 9 women who showed up. The kids went off and did their thing while we demonstrated our technique to Megan. We skied another loop around the lake (without poles this time!) and then began technique work. Do you know the V-2 alternate technique with skate skiing? I'm guessing it was invented after I got out of competitive skiing years ago, because I'd never heard of it, and certainly didn't know how to do it.

Half an hour later, after more coaching than I recall getting in all the years of skiing competitively, I had the technique down and got to celebrate by skiing yet another loop around the lake--using V-2 alternate technique of course!

Now I'm back home, my thighs are throbbing, my shoulders aching, and my spirit is glowing. It felt so good to learn something new, to work hard at it, to be in the company of other women who love to ski, and to get 2 hours of sunshine as part of the package. I don't think I'll be out there 6 days a week, but is exciting to have a group of 20+ women to ski with. It is one more thing about Homer that I love.

Kayak, Climb and More: Benefits of Homer Community Education

Last week my kids started taking a kayaking class at the Homer High School pool. They both like kayaking, but we had to drag Aurora; she didn't think it would be "cool" enough. By time she was done with class the first night, she was looking forward to going back, and had added kayaking to her list of sports she loves. And although Denver capsized dozens of times in his small little boat, he left in high spirits, bragging about how much better he had gotten over the course of the night. The highlight of the class was creating a "raft" of kayaks with everyone holding onto each others kayaks, and then one by one the kids crawled out of their boat and had to crawl over everyone else's kayak. It was a blast for the kids, and they thought it was hilarious when one kayak got sunk!

Kayaking is only the latest of our kids' fun with classes offered through Homer Community Schools. Aurora rock climbs twice a week at the high school, Doug plays pickup basketball twice a week, Aurora plays basketball with the Bruins, (over 30 kids grades 3-6 participating) and finally, Denver has discovered his passion for wrestling through the Popeye Wrestling Program. All of these are offered under the auspices of Homer Community Schools.

Homer Community Schools is sponsored by the City of Homer and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. It is considered part of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, so the director of the program is paid by the city. The school district offers the building use for free, which is appropriate, since in Alaska school buildings are owned and maintained by the borough. When area voters decided last year to remove sales tax from food during the winter months as a relief to locals' pocketbooks, the city lost a significant source of income. The economy was sluggish this summer, so sales taxes from local businesses were also down. Between these 2 factors, Homer Community Schools, along with many other valuable programs and offerings in Homer, face the chopping block. If this happened, hundreds of community members of all ages would be out of recreational opportunities, and dozens of dedicated volunteers who teach classes of all types would not have an outlet for passing on their passions.

My first assignment for the kids at the beginning of this homeschool year was to write a letter to the Homer City Council or a letter to the editor. I spoke to the City Council president in passing one day, and he mentioned that it is more effective to show up in person. Denver jumped at the chance to give a speech, so the following Monday Doug took him to the City Council meeting and he testified, sharing why he thought Community Schools should be kept. A month or so later, at another City Council meeting, Aurora unexpectedly took the opportunity to present as well. For her it was a heartfelt plea, completely unplanned, as she shared her feelings about the matter: through the offerings of Community Schools she has discovered passions that mean so much to her, and those activities give her something to do and give purpose to her life.

As a parent, my heart aches at the thought of what losing Homer Community Schools would do in my family. The $68,000 cash outlay a year that the entire program costs seems like paltry sum for all the good it does, month after month, year after year--echos for a lifetime for the hundreds of people who utilize the program. And like all good things, once it is gone it will never come back. It has taken years of development to get the programs to where they are at now.

What will my daughter do if there is no Community Schools? I just don't know. There are other options out there, I suppose, though undoubtedly they will cost significantly more than what Community Schools programs cost. But even more than that, what of those passions that have been kindled? What happens when you take those things away? How does one get through the long, dark winters in Alaska without the beacon of activities, interests, social contacts and exercise to pull them through?